


A is for ACHILLES'S ADVICE

by too_beauty



Category: Alexander (2004)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 16:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10620912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/too_beauty/pseuds/too_beauty
Summary: Alexander follows his hero's advice.





	

TITLE: “A is for Achilles’ advice”  
PAIRING: Hephaestion/Alexander. Achilles and Patroclus (implied), Ptolemy  
RATING: PG  
CATEGORY: Historical AU  
DISCLAIMER: I do not know the people involved, no harm intended, everything is the product of my imagination. Alexander and Hephaestion belong to History and to each other but I would not mind sharing my life with the blue-eyed god.  
WARNINGS: m/m kissing  
My mother tongue is Spanish and I work WITHOUT A BETA so all the mistakes are mine.  
FEEDBACK: Comments are love! Any kind will help me to improve my writing or leave it forever.  
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Niké is the goddess of Victory while Tyke is the goddess of Fortune.

* * *

 

The young Macedonian King was sitting on a high rock facing a river in Phtia, the homeland of his hero and ancestor Achilles; the blonde warrior, leader of the Myrmidons, who sailed to Troy to fight against Sparta.

 

Achilles went to Troy because he wanted his name to be remembered forever. But things turned out a bit different: his beloved Patroclus – wearing his armour- was killed by Hector, prince of Troy. With his heart broken into a thousand pieces, Achilles fought and killed Hector. But in his grieve, he became reckless and so Achilles was killed by the treacherous arrow of Paris, shot to his heel, the only weak spot in his invulnerable body.  
But as nothing bad lasts forever, Achilles followed his lover soon down to the House of Death and since then, they had lived together, and looking after two boys – who were born in 356BC with some months difference between them – by direct request of Zeus and Aphrodite.

 

Alexander was alone on this trip, for the first time since he had memory, he didn’t travel with Hephaestion, and the blue-eyed General hadn’t asked to go either.  
They were getting apart, Hephaestion was stepping aside, royalty was meddling between them as well as women, eunuchs and other lovers and Alexander hadn’t been able to see the truth until it was too late and he was unable to find a solution.

 

Alexander was at Phtia because Achilles had appeared in his dreams asking him to go there. And he had followed that strange dream.  
Alexander chose some of his bodyguards but Hephaestion wasn’t among them. The First Companion felt how the rift between them had grown deeper but decided that he wouldn’t feel abandoned; he had lived a wonderful relationship with Alexander, longer that anybody had expected, and even though they were bonded and wearing matching lockets, Hephaestion realised that their time together was over. He took off his locket and kissed it lovingly before leaving it on Alexander’s bedside table.

 

The Macedonian king left at dawn with his four bodyguards and both, Alexander and Bucephalus, were followed till they disappeared in the distance by two cerulean eyes filled with pain.

 

The group arrived when the sun was setting on the horizon; they put up the tents and ate their dinner. Alexander was extremely quiet and nobody dared to ask why Hephaestion wasn’t with them.  
Alexander was the first to retire to his camp bed and he realised that he really missed his lover, his soul mate, his better half, but he also knew that he had been under so much pressure and he had neglected him.

 

Achilles came again to him in his dreams and asked him to get up and go to the bank of a river which was across the woods. While he was walking, Alexander could admire the different plants and night animals he came across and he wished one more time that his love were with him.

He reached the river and sat on a high rock and contemplated the crystalline water, the stars shining up in the sky and the full moon. In that moment, he remembered a very special occasion when he had told Hephaestion that he was the moon to his sun and his heart skipped a beat at that memory, it had been the night they bonded to each other and exchanged their lockets and vows of eternal love. His chin was nearly touching his chest because he couldn’t tolerate the grief in his heart when he suddenly felt a warm arm across his shoulders; he lifted his face and saw Achilles comforting him, in silence, waiting for Alexander to get out of this shock.

 

\- “Achilles, is that you?” asked an astonished Alexander.

\- “Yes, great King, it is me and I have to say that you are not looking very well,” Achilles said laughing.

\- “But is this possible? How can you be here? How am I able to touch you?” a shaken Alexander asked.

\- “Calm down, my boy. Yes, it is possible; I am here because Father Zeus is worried about you; he gave me this body to come and see you.”

\- “Why is he worried about me? Am I ill? Will I die soon?”

\- “No, Alexander, none of those options, but he is worried because you are losing yourself, your real essence, that thing that makes you what and who you are!”

\- “It is true, I haven’t been myself since we got to Babylon, but I don’t know what to do”

\- “Look inside your heart and discover which the leading force in your life is”

\- “It is easy; it is Niké and also Tyké that favours the bold.”

\- “So you really have changed, Alexander and that brings sorrow to my heart. Be thankful that Patroclus is not here with me because he would feel betrayed.”

\- “I don’t understand; how did I disappoint you?”

\- “Because by this time, you should have realised that the leading force in you comes, not from a thing but from a person.”

\- “Speak clearer, my hero; I am still in the dark.”

\- “I repeat my advice: look inside your heart, Alexander, inside your heart” and saying that Achilles disappeared.

 

Alexander went back to his tent, feeling more anxious than before but his mind was so clouded that he couldn't see the truth. Eros painted the sky with her rosy fingers, bringing the morning with her and Helios went out to lighten the sky.

Ptolemy couldn’t see his King so depressed and that morning he was looking even worse than the night before. Perdicas was drinking some water from the water skin and pointed that Alexander looked like a sick teenager who has lost his lover. Ptolemy raised his head and kissed Perdicas on his forehead because with his joke he might have discovered what the root of the problem was.

The elder General opened the flaps to the king’s tent and discovered Alexander with his head between his hands and sobbing against his locket. He ran and knelt beside his friend and embraced him as if he was a little child.

 

\- “Something is wrong with me, Ptolemy and I don’t know how to fix it ”

\- “What’s the problem, Alexander? Why are you so sad?”

\- “I feel that I have lost something precious and I don’t know how to get it back”

\- “Why do you say that?” the General asked.

\- “Achilles visited me yesterday night and he told me to look inside my heart and find which my leading force was. I told him that they were glory and fortune and he got really sad because he said I had changed a lot”

\- “I have to agree with him, Alexander. You are not that superficial; I thought that your leading force was love.”

\- “Love? But what has love given me? Sorrow, pain, hate ….”

\- “Don’t say that my friend, your answer saddens me too and I really think that your thoughts are not clear, in fact, you have lost the thing that anchors you to life; all that gold, all those lovers and eunuchs, all that glow have finally caught you in its net and you have really lost what used to make you be simply Alexander”

\- “What is that, my friend? Tell me” Alexander pleaded.

\- “It is more a who than a what, Alexander, and the truth is in your hands.” and saying that he left the king alone.

 

Alexander looked at his hands and he realised that all the time he had been caressing his locket, which had an auburn lock of hair and his Phai´s vows. In that moment, as if stricken by the almighty Zeus himself, he realised that his Phai was his leading force; that it was his Phai the only one who could put him back together, that it was his Phai´s absence that made him lose his north.

 

Going back to the river, he found Achilles waiting for him; he embraced his hero and told him about his discovery. The warrior nodded and gave him a gift and his second advice:

 

\- “Go back to him, win him over again and give him the peace of mind he needs to continue living”

\- “Why do you say that?” a worried Alexander asked.

\- “As I was sent to look after you, Patroclus did the same for your beloved and he told me that he is suffering so much that he is losing his strength to go on living. As soon as you arrive, give this to him on his behalf and place your locket on his chest again.”

\- “My locket is here, I have never taken it off” Alexander explained.

\- “That is Hephaestion’s locket, yours is lying on your table because he thought you didn’t love him anymore and he did the ultimate sacrifice for you; but he is not well, so hurry up and reassure him with your love.”

 

Alexander thanked Achilles and went back to the camp; he told Ptolemy that he was going back to the palace because he needed to see Hephaestion, and he rode on Bucephalus as quick as the wind.

* * *

 

On arriving at the palace, he saw some sad faces in the rest of the Companions and his heart sank inside his chest. Phillip, his personal doctor, was coming out of Hephaestion’s chamber and his face was dark and sad too.

 

\- “Phillip, what is the reason for that sad face?” the king asked.

\- “Oh Sire, thanks to the gods you are back! It is General Hephaestion, he is sick and he doesn’t want to take his medicines, he said he has nothing to live for”

\- “Leave it to me, my good doctor but stay near because I may need you later” and after saying that, he went to his chamber, took the locket from the table and headed to his beloved’s room.

 

\- “I told you to stay away, Phillip” an angry Hephaestion shouted. “Why don’t you leave me alone?”

 

Hephaestion had his back towards the door so he couldn’t see who had entered his room. After some minutes, he felt a weight near his body on the bed and two strong arms hugged him from behind.

 

\- “Because I need you by my side to go on living, to be Alexander again and not the selfish and greedy man I have become”

 

Hephaestion tensed his body and remained quiet, he didn’t know what to say but his heart quickened his rhythm and he felt as if his soul were coming back inside his body.

 

\- “I am so sorry, Phai. I never meant to hurt you; I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness but I will be here by your side forever if you decide to take me back” and saying that Alexander started to get up from the bed but he was stopped by a hand wrapped around his wrist.

\- “It is me who should ask for your forgiveness, it is me the one who made you worry and the only one who supposed that we would stay together forever” Hephaestion whispered and lifted his head to look at Alexander into his eyes.

 

Alexander was so shocked to see so much love and so much pain in those eyes he had learnt to adore many years ago that he could only go back to sit on the bed and hugged him, caressing his head against his strong chest.

 

\- “No, my love, it is me the one who lost his way, the one who lost his north, but I am here again, with my heart in my hands to offer it to you again and to beg you to help me to be the man that you deserve.”

 

Hephaestion took his King’s face between his hands and kissed his lips with so much passion that Alexander could feel how happiness and joy nestle again inside it. He returned the kiss with all the love he had and placed his locket around his beloved’s neck.

 

\- “Patroclus sent you this” Alexander told him, giving him a little piece of cloth.

 

When Hephaestion opened it, he discovered a small quince, a well-known symbol of love if he remembered well the old folk tales his mother used to tell him as a child.

 

\- “What a strange present to send me!” Hephaestion said, hiding his knowledge about the fruit’s true meaning.

\- “As you know, the quince is the symbol of love, the outside skin is hard like the muscles that protect our heart, the fruit itself is a bit bitter at the beginning but it gets sweeter when you are reaching its core, that symbolizes how love grows and gets sweeter when you can reach your beloved´s heart” Alexander explained slowly, wishing his beloved get the idea.

 

\- “Alexander, would you share this quince with me?” Hephaestion, with tears in his cyan eyes, whispered.

\- “Of course, my love, but on one condition, promise me that you will share your life with me, ” he asked and sealed their promise with a long and loving kiss.

 

 

Both lovers spent their night together, sleeping in each other’s arms and knowing that from the Olympus two heroes and two gods were looking after their lives and their love because Love had been the force that had saved them.

 


End file.
